


A Stone In Place Of Her Heart

by creatureofhobbit



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-12
Updated: 2012-10-12
Packaged: 2017-11-16 04:43:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/535627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creatureofhobbit/pseuds/creatureofhobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cora knows Regina is making a mistake choosing love over power. Once upon a time, she had to make that choice herself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Stone In Place Of Her Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Text in italics is from the musical Blood Brothers. I chose to disregard the line by Henry where he says that Cora met Rumpel before she knew him, purely because I'd written half of this before that episode aired and didn't want to rewrite it.

_Did you never hear of the mother so cruel, there’s a stone in place of her heart? Then bring her on and come judge for yourselves how she came to play this part._

Regina was young, but she would understand one day. She may be idealistic enough to believe at this time that love could make her happy, but she would learn. It would have come as a surprise to her to learn that once, when Cora was much the same age as Regina, that she had believed that once too. But then she had learned of what power could give her, and how much happier she could be. That foolish girl should be grateful for the opportunity she had to be queen. Cora had had that opportunity herself once upon a time, and then it had been snatched away from her. Initially she had blamed the imp Rumpelstiltskin. But now Cora understood that it was her own fault that her time as queen had been cut so short. Because she had made the mistake of believing love could make her happy, before she had even met the king. 

One day Regina would thank Cora for the sacrifices she had made. And one day she would understand that she had to make sacrifices too in order to succeed. She’d realise what a mistake she had made in wanting to throw her mother’s wishes aside for that stable boy. Regina would have that life that Cora had lost for herself.

 

Twenty Three Years Earlier:

“I don’t understand why you don’t just tell your parents about us,” Henry said as Cora turned to walk into her house.

“Soon,” Cora promised.

“Do you really think that they won’t approve?” Henry asked. “You’ll never know unless you talk to them. They may surprise you.”

“Maybe you’re right.” Cora admitted. 

“And does it really matter if they don’t?” Henry asked. “My family would accept you and love you. As long as we love each other and we’re happy, that’s what really matters.”

“They’re my family, Henry.” Cora sighed. “I want them to be happy for us too.” She turned and walked into her house, hoping that her parents had already gone to sleep and wouldn’t hear her coming in, then stopped short in surprise when she realised that her father, the miller, was sat at the table with his head in his hands, her mother stood there glaring at her.

“Mother? Father?” Cora asked. “What is the matter?”

“Yes, go on,” Cora’s mother, Esmeralda, spat at her husband. “Tell our daughter what you have done.”

“I’m sorry,” her father, Samuel, the miller, said, unable to look at Cora.

“Your fool of a father,” Esmeralda began, “was drunk in the tavern earlier this evening, and as he so often does when he is drunk, began bragging. He claimed that you could spin straw into gold.”

“What?” Cora let out a nervous snort of a laugh. “That’s ridiculous.”

“And it gets better,” Esmeralda continued. “The king was in the tavern at the time and heard every word your father said. He’s decided he wants to see this for himself. He demanded that you be presented to him tomorrow, at which time you will be asked to spin some straw into gold for him or else you will be executed. Your father has just signed your death warrant.”

 

_How quickly an idea planted can take root and grow into a plan  
The thought conceived in this very room grew as surely as a seed in a mother’s womb_

“Oh, dearie dearie dearie.”

Cora lifted her red, swollen eyes to glance in the direction of the voice. A horrible creature met her eyes; a man with straggly hair down to his shoulders, yellow eyes and a pointed nose. Cora thought that he resembled a toad.

“What has a girl like you got to cry about?”

“The King expects me to spin all this straw into gold before the dawn,” Cora sobbed. “Otherwise I will face execution. But I cannot do that.”

“Well, maybe there is a way that I can help,” the imp began. “But you have to understand that all magic comes with a price.”

“I don’t care,” Cora clutched at his filthy robes before realising what she was doing and surreptitiously wiping her hands on her skirt. “I’ll do anything to get out of here.”

“Anything?” the imp asked. “Well, well. I will spin the straw into gold for you, but in return I will want something from you at a later date.”

“Anything you want,” Cora began, “and it is yours.”

 

“Cora!” Henry exclaimed, running towards her. “My father told me what yours had said in the tavern...and when I heard you had actually gone with the King, I was so worried...” He went to embrace Cora, but Cora stiffened and took a few steps back from him.

“I’m going to marry King Edward, Henry.”

“But you can’t,” Henry stammered. “You and I – we had an understanding.”

Cora could not deny to herself that there was a part of her that still wanted Henry, and when she thought that she was going to be executed the next day, it had been the thought of him that had kept her going. But this chance to be queen was the chance of a lifetime; how could Cora walk away from that to be the wife of a mere squire, no matter how much she may have loved him once?

“He asked me for my hand in marriage this morning, because he was so impressed that I had managed to spin his straw into gold,” Cora explained. “And I have accepted.”

“But you and I – we were already pre-contracted to marry,” Henry repeated. “And you cannot spin straw into gold, I don’t understand how that can have happened...Cora, you cannot marry him! You and I are meant to be together. And I know that whatever you may have told the king, you still love me too.”

“I’m sorry, Henry,” Cora could not look at him as she said this. “But I’m going to marry him. It’s over between us.”

“It’ll never be over for me, Cora.” Henry clutched at her sleeve. “You can marry him. But you and I, we’re meant to be. I’ll wait for you.”

“I’m not coming back, Henry.” Cora yanked her arm from his grasp. “The wedding will be in four weeks.”

 

“It’s all right,” Esmeralda hissed in Cora’s ear as they climbed into the carriage which was to bear them to where King Edward was waiting for their marriage ceremony to begin. “He won’t be coming to try and stop you going to the king. Your father’s taken care of it.”

Knowing her parents as she did, Cora suspected that it was more likely Esmeralda herself than Samuel who had “taken care of” Henry. But she also hadn’t consciously realised until Esmeralda mentioned it that there was still a part of her that had thought (had hoped, if she were truly honest with herself) that Henry might turn up to plead with her one last time.

Then she shook her head. Henry was part of her past now; her future was King Edward. All eyes were on her as Cora made her way to meet her bridegroom; Prince George of the neighbouring kingdom whose betrothal to the lady Isabella had recently been announced, the newly crowned King Midas, and King Leopold and his new bride, all were gathered there to witness their joining in marriage. As Cora vowed to live King Edward for all eternity and the Bishop joined their hands in matrimony, Cora took a moment to glance at all those in attendance. Suddenly she stopped short, blinked in surprise. For a moment there, she thought she had seen the toad-like imp who had spun the straw into gold for her all those weeks ago. Then she looked again, and he was gone.

She had to have been imagining that. He couldn’t have been there. He’d gone now, and that was what mattered. Cora was determined to forget she’d thought she’d seen him, and get on with celebrating her wedding day.

 

There were celebrations throughout the realm. The ale flowed freely, people danced throughout the night. All were celebrating the announcement that King Edward and Queen Cora were expecting their first child.

Cora smiled as she graciously acknowledged the congratulations of the people in her realm, drinking in the moment.

“Hello, dearie,” came a voice from beside her. “I must offer my congratulations, your Majesty.”

“You!” Cora exclaimed as she whirled around to discover the imp standing beside her.

“Me,” grinned the imp. “Bet you were hoping never to set eyes on me again. Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I’m here about what I was promised.”

“Whatever you want,” Cora snapped. “Money, jewels, you’ve got it. Just get out of here.”

“Oh, I don’t want your money, your Majesty,” the imp smirked. “It’s your unborn child I want. Or the King finds out who really spun the straw into gold.”

Cora froze. “You can’t do that.”

“Oh, I think you’ll find I can.” The imp nodded. “But I’ll make you a deal. If, when I come to you again, you can tell me my name, then you get to keep your child. If you fail, then the child belongs to me.”

“I’ll find it,” Cora hissed. “If it’s the last thing I do.”

 

_Did you really feel that you’d become secure, that time had brushed away the past?  
Now there’s no one by your window, no one’s knocking at your door  
Did you believe that you were free at last, free from the broken looking glass _

 

Look at him, Cora thought, approaching me with a smirk on his face in anticipation of the wrong answer he believes I will give. He had no idea of the amount of effort put in by her servants to try and track him down before finally someone had overheard his name.

“Good to see you again,” she began, “Rumpelstiltskin.”

She waited for him to freeze in horror, to turn and slink away with his tail between his legs, even to physically turn on her. None of those would have shocked her. Instead, Rumpelstiltskin began to laugh.

“Well, congratulations, dearie,” he began. “You guessed right.”

“And I’m gonna keep my baby,” Cora spat. “When her father and I are gone, he or she will rule in our place. And you will never touch my child.”

“Did you not listen to me, dearie? All magic comes with a price.” Rumpelstiltskin smirked. “And I don’t think either of you are done with me. There will come a time when your child will come to me, when your child will want to learn magic.”

“That is not the life I want for my child,” Cora insisted.  
“Cora, dearie, there will be nothing you can do to stop that. Your child will be mine after all.”

 

“I didn’t know,” Cora sobbed.

But King Edward ignored her. “Was this always part of your plan?” he roared. “To trick me into marriage and present me with a child that wasn’t mine?”

Cora shook her head. “I swear, I didn’t know I was already carrying a child when I married you. I had no plan.”

“Did you seriously think I wouldn’t notice?” King Edward roared. “The fact that this changeling looks nothing like me, or the fact that the dates mean that it cannot be mine?”

“I’m sorry.” Cora didn’t know what else she could say to convince him.

“So how did the straw get spun into gold?” King Edward demanded. “Because I no longer believe that that was you either.”

“It was a man,” Cora sobbed, “called Rumpelstiltskin.”

“Sorcery? You allied yourself with The Dark One?” King Edward seized Cora by the throat. “I want you out of my castle and out of my realm. If you are found in this kingdom after 24 hours, I will pronounce the sentence of death.”

 

“To what do I owe this pleasure?” Rumpelstiltskin smirked.

“You’re loving this, aren’t you?” Cora spat. But Rumpelstiltskin ignored this and reached for her baby, removing the child from Cora’s arms.

“And this is the child that you wouldn’t give to me. If you had known that this was Henry’s daughter, would it have made a difference? Would you have sacrificed your child for the chance to remain queen?”

“Give her to me,” Cora demanded, reaching out her arms for the child.

“As long as you say please,” Rumpelstiltskin smirked.

“Please,” Cora begged.

“You know, there is another way of achieving great power, without having to be married to royalty. I can help you there. I can teach you how to get what you want. I can teach you magic.”

She could turn round and walk away, start her life anew with her daughter, try to forget she had ever known of either the king or this man. She had a choice.

“Okay,” she said. “Tell me what I have to do.”

 

On the surface, people who didn’t know her better would have thought that she was happy.

Henry had taken her back, just as he had vowed he would. And with Cora’s newfound magic, she had been able to raise them to a standard of living that most people would be very happy with. But Cora, who had once been a queen, always longed for something more.

It was too late for Cora now, this was her life. But it was not too late for her daughter. That was why Cora had named her daughter Regina; she was named for her destiny. But as Cora loved her daughter, and remained determined that she should never fall into the hands of Rumpelstiltskin, she also knew that there was a part of her that would always resent Regina, both for being the inadvertent cause of ending Cora’s marriage and her time as a queen and for still having that chance to be a queen herself where Cora’s time was over.

When Cora watched Regina throwing herself away on that stable boy, and rejecting the possibility of marriage with King Leopold, she had itched with irritation. All these opportunities that Cora had been denied, and Regina was prepared to throw them away? It was down to Cora to make sure that Regina (and she, of course) got the life they deserved. Regina may be upset right now, but one day she would come to understand that Cora had done what was best for her. Everything came with a price, and sacrifices had to be made. And one day, Regina would thank Cora for making her who she was.


End file.
